Messi is on a 673 million USD 4 yr deal. If there was no salary cap do you think any NBA players would earn as much?

[bstein14]

You know for sure someone like Cuban gives FA Giannis $100 million per year... or KD gets $100+ million to go to Brooklyn. Some of these owners don't really care about losing money its just a write off for all the other piles of money they make.

I would imagine the best 4 to 5 players in the league could get in the $100 million per year range.

The NBA would actually get way more diverse is each team could have one player signed that doesn't count against the salary cap, and then just reduce the salary cap by about a third. Instead of $120 cap you can a $80 million salary cap with each team getting one player exception that doesn't count against the cap. You'd likely never have guys like LeBron and AD teaming up because they'd both want the huge exception contracts of at least $50+ million they'd get.

[Cactus Jack]

Messi the GOAT...All i wanted to say.

Messi is the 2nd best player.

Who is better?

The poster is a fan of Madrid. So I'm assuming it's Ronaldo.

[BigGargamel]

Goddang. Teach your kids to play soccer yall.

[Saint Lazarus]

Soccer is much bigger than nba world wide

Sure but revenue and popularity is split between 5 major leagues and a bunch of other domestic leagues.

The NBA is the premier basketball league. Is someone from Italy going to tune in to watch Messi beat up on Troyes?

There's a reason why the Lakers, Knicks, Yankees, Cowboys, Patriots are in the upper echelon of team valuations.

[turnaroundJ]

maybe lebron and steph...and maybe KD could command something like that. in a true free market. but i also think if we were to drop the cap, roleplayers wouldn't be getting paid the current max. probably a lot lower.

[Synciere]

With no salary cap Lebron (a reasonable comp for Messi) would’ve EASILY been worth close to 200 million to a big market team like the Lakers or Knicks.

[Sofia]

Balmer is richest owner in the league and he definitely would’ve thrown $100m on the table without blinking when Lebron was leaving Miami

[Pantsman]

Dan Gilbert paid Tristan Thompson JR Smith and Kevin love a combined 70M a year just to keep lebron happy. I guarantee if lebron wanted 100M per year he would have gotten it.

[BernteB]

Lionel Messi is on a 4 year contract where he's making 168 million a season. How many if any NBA players would be able to command that much?

eh, where did you get these numbers from. messi signed a 2 year deal with psg with an option for a 3rd year, which would pay him 110 mio net over these 3 years.

[ArtMorte]

This is why US/north American pro sports teams are worth more then Euro football clubs, even when the Euro football clubs have more revenue.

Yeah, owning a sports team in America is great, because the owners control how much salaries they have to pay (by setting a salary cap), making it easy to make a profit. In Europe, there's pressure to spend all the club's money on players, to keep up with the competition who are also doing that, and it's normal to post losses. Both approaches have their good sides, imo.

[bbalnation]

Im curious how much an NBA owner is making per year in the valuation of their organization (how much increase year by year) along with their own dividends and/or salaries.

[trueballer7]

Messi is the 2nd best player.

Who is better?

Pele clearly...Dude played against defenders who couldn't even stand in a proper defensive stance.

Whats the proper defensive stance in football?

[Lalouie]

no

because soccer is bigger than basketball. i don't know what the mindset of teammates are in soccer are, but in basketball in america if you have a player of two making tons of cash the other players would want a piece too. the situation would be untenable

[GreatWhiteStiff]

Balmer is richest owner in the league and he definitely would’ve thrown $100m under the table without blinking when Lebron was leaving Miami

FYP. You were close though.

[dribble1614]

prime jordan would be worth 10 years / 2-3 billion.

[Kingdibs19]

Lebron

[Ryoga Hibiki]

Lionel Messi is on a 4 year contract where he's making 168 million a season. How many if any NBA players would be able to command that much?

Consider that football teams in Europe can pay like 90% of their revenues in salaries, even more. It's not a sustainable and healthy business.
But you can check what % of the cap jordon made in his last year with the Bulls, I think it was like 120%.
Do the math and it would be like 140m today.

Sent from my Nokia 3210 using RealGM mobile app

[MVP1992]

You know for sure someone like Cuban gives FA Giannis $100 million per year... or KD gets $100+ million to go to Brooklyn. Some of these owners don't really care about losing money its just a write off for all the other piles of money they make.

Oh I think they'd care about losing money.


Do you do an annual tax return?

Every outgoing expense is a tax deduction.
But you don't get $1 back for $1 spent.

[-Luke-]

It don't really follow soccer anymore. But is it fair to say that average NBA players earn a lot more than average soccer players in Europe?

[NoDopeOnSundays]

LeBron would have been worth that much during his prime, there would have been a bidding war between Portland, NY and LA. Portland had the wealthiest owner in sports during that time period.

Right now I don't think anyone gets that much, Knicks would definitely pay Giannis at least $100 million per season though